Earthquake in Haiti

I have been interested goint to Haiti to a mission, which I have mentioned, and now I have even a greater desire. But with school and no money this will not happen. I have been praying for the children especially for those with special needs and those children who may need special help after the earthquake. I recently have been recieveing emails about some of my friends going to help. I got an email from an organization about a rescue flight for those children in need of 'foster' homes. I wish I was in the position now to help but I hope to do as much as I can from afar so please join me. Here is the news: Haitian Orphans Land in US



Many More to Come


January 02,2010 / Martha Osborne

Fifty-three Haitian orphans from the Bresma Orphanage arrived in Pittsburgh today as part of a rescue mission coordinated by PA Gov. Ed Rendell, who accompanied the plane to Haiti . The plane unloaded much needed medical supplies in the capital city of Port-au-Prince , then reloaded with the orphans from Bresma and their caretaker, Ali McMutrie.

The orphan airlift was initiated by Pennsylvania sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie, who moved to Haiti to care for children at a Port-au-Prince orphanage four years ago. Unable to reach family and supporters by phone after the earthquake, Jamie and Ali texted the dire circumstances of the orphans in their care, reaching the world through social-networking sites, Facebook and Twitter.

"When the earthquake hit, my sister and I felt absolutely hopeless," Ali McMurie told a news conference in Pittsburgh . She added, "We knew we had to take action."

The orphaned children, most of whom are under the age of 4-years, were immediately transferred to the local Children's Hospital, where they will be evaluated, and then processed through immigration. ALL of the children were already legally adopted, or in process, at the time of the earthquake . This humanitarian airlift has assisted them in reuniting with their adoptive families, all of whom have traveled at least once to visit with their children and process adoption papers in Haiti . The effort to unite these children with their families is the first in a humanitarian visa program that will attempt to bring all children who were currently in the process to be adopted at the time of the earthquake to the US to be united with their adoptive families.

Meanwhile, Catholic Charities in Florida is attempting to begin it's program Pierre Pan , and bring hundreds of Haitian homeless children to the US. So far, 23 patients from the earthquake have been treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital, with countless more likely to be airlifted from the island for treatment. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has contacted all the children's hospitals in Florida and requested that they receive critically injured Haitian children in the aftermath of the earthquake. Nelson on Friday said he also plans to introduce a "major Haitian relief bill," though details of this bill have not yet been announced.

"Operation Pierre Pan," as its being called, is an effort to relocate the thousands of children likely orphaned by the natural disaster in Port-au-Prince. Many of the children could already have relatives in Miami and around the U.S. The movement would need the approval of the U.S. government to at the very least grant the orphans temporary status in the country.

A similar effort occurred decades ago when "Operation Pedro Pan" was launched to help the children of Cuba during the political upheaval in that island neighbor. Some 14,000 children were relocated to the United States, many of them settling in South Florida .

Still, agencies in Miami-Dade and Broward are gearing up for the possible influx of children in need of a home, according to the Sun-Sentinel .

"We've already begun to make preparations and are willing to do our part," said Mark Riordan, Broward County spokesman for the state's Department of Children and Families.

Editor's Note: We caution readers, again, to understand that while the US is full of compassionate, loving families that long to ease the suffering of these children, it is imperative to understand that many of these children have families and will need to be re-united with them at some point. Currently there is no legal or moral way to bring children from Haiti who have an undetermined-orphan-status, and place them permanently into US families. We thank you for your loving compassion towards these children and will keep our readers updated as to any policy changes regarding these precious children.

more contacts

I love the new AOTA Connections forum. I have met so many other students and therapists that have the same goal and asperations as I. I have recently been speaking with a couple of students who have been on missions trips to current facilities. One that continually keeps coming up is the Miriam Center in Haiti. The newest contact from the forum has been numerous times and this is what she said: I am a graduate student finishing my last semester and have similar goals as you with working OT in 3rd world and developing countries. I agree there is not much literature out there but it is becoming more widespread. I have been working with a disabilities orphanage in Haiti for 3 years now. I am planning on going in this summer again prior to taking my boards. Since I have started working there, we have set up many programs. We have grown to 24 kids in the orphanage and the daily program for parents to bring their disabled children in and get 2 meals a day, therapy, and educational play has grown from 7 in June to 25 today. Very exciting! We are finishing up a new therapy room with an enclosed trampoline, foam playground, schedules, treatment plans for each child, etc. We are in the process of partnering in with four organization (orphans promise, kimmy's house, shephards crook, and global orphan project) to build a state of the art 150 disabilities orphanage. The land has been bought and plans are being drawn up. It is super exciting. You can check out the work we are doing at my blog www.autumnsreflections.blogspot.com or the missions website www.nwhcm.org or Courntey the director of miriam center at http://haitihappydance.blogspot.com/2009/11/god.html I have been in contact with an OT from Oklahoma who has started her own mission and goes to 4-5 different countries as well her name is Lori Basey and her website is http://nbint.org/founders.html. I did a project in school and read one of her articles, called her up and talked and this past summer she visited our orphanage :) If you would like more information feel free to contact me, my email is marshall010@gannon.edu
Is God not awesome?! I will have to pray about when to go and how but God works in wonderful ways to lead you thorugh your journey. Leaving for Tulsa now :)

The end of winter break

My time in Seattle is almost up. It is bitter sweet to go back I miss those in Tulsa but then I will miss everyone in Seattle. I have to go back to school and to the real world... I recently sent in an application in for a pediatric grant which will help me with tuition and after I graduate I will get a bonus which is always a plus. I will be taking about 4 special classes specific for pediatrics which will help me with my job search and confidence to start my career. I will know if I get it in just a couple of week!
I have contacted another organization that has developed a therapy clinic called Casa Bethesda. This is the ideal place i would want to develop in the future. I emailed the supervisor who emailed me back and told me to email the pastor who started it directly! I am looking forward to hear back from him soon. I am still planning on attenting the meeting at my church.
Wishing you all well

The New Year!!

Here's to the year of 2010! I have made a couple of new year's resolutions that I would like to put in writing so everyone can hold me accountable. The first one is commonly made and broken but I am going to strive to go to the gym at least 3x a week, I need to get my rowing like body back, it has been lost in OT school somewhere :) Second, I am going to keep up my blog and not just about school but new and exciting adventures and my prusuit as a professional. I am also wanting to blog about my search of how to open a therapy clinic in a needed area. I have had this dream for a while now but I figured if I can keep record of what I find it may keep me motivated and allow me to vent about the frustrations along the way. My third resolution is to not let the small things in life get to me, I want to enjoy the rest of my 20's and make a difference in this world not just live in it! These are some pretty large dreams, asperations, or resolutions but if you don't dream big then whats the point?

So to introduce to you my huge endeavor of opening up a therapy clinic in developing nations. I have always felt God has put missions into my heart eventhough I have yet to go on one yet. Everytime anyone speaks about a mission they are going on or my church pray for someone who is going my heart aches. I feel God has a calling for me but it has taken a long time for me to be in the right place for God to use me and my skills. But ever since I started OT school I knew what He wants me to do. He wants me to help children with disabilities in orphanges who are unable to get the neccessary care they need.

The biggest question is how? That I am not sure of... I have prayed and researched a lot. Very little comes up in the sense of a company or organization doing this as of now. I have recieved numerous ideas and advice from missionaries and collegues. I am slightly overwhelmed and not even sure where to start. I have been trying to network by using the wonder of Facebook and Twitter. I have found a couple of reputable companies that I have contacted. One current organization based out of britain is the closest I have found to my personal desires but as it looks they are only taking on british OT's and volunteers http://www.lcint.org/?lid=3044 The organization I have most recently contacted and spoke to was M.I. Africa who builds schools in Africa. They are a new org and are just starting their schools but seemed very excited about my idea. They told me they would keep me on their contact list and update me on their progress. The most recent news was an email from my church http://www.tcabc.com/ (who is huge with adoption and misson work), notifying us of a meeting with a person from lifesong for orphans about work in Ethiopia and Zambia. Zambia has a special place in my heart because Howard's brother is from Zambia. He is a doctor and would like to go back and open a health clinic. I would love to go with him to start a therapy clinci along side his medical equipment, they could work hand in hand. This meeting is on Jan. 14th the day after I get back to Tulsa. Coincidence, I don't think so. I will let you know what new information I get.

Sorry for the long post but needed to update and

start over for the new year!

long time..

One of these days I am actually going to be good at keeping up with this blog thing. Synopsis of the semester... not to bad. A lot more busy work and group projects but I don't mind because it helps the grades out and I feel more productive when I can cross off of my to do list. I pretty much just have two unfinished assignments, and 5 exams left! So the countdown begins until December 17th. Unfortunantly Abbie has to stay behind, I just simply can't afford to take her. If I get caught it is just to expensive. On the other hand Howard is very excited to have her for 3 whole weeks. Plus Abbie will have Isabel, Reis, Raegan and the whole rest of the Vernon clan to keep her busy. I especially think Isabel will run her ragged. Better stop procrastinating and get some research done for my intervention plan. Next I will post some pictures from Thanksgiving, which was fun and relaxing with a little school work thrown in there.

Summer

Hello all. It has been a while since I have updated but I am currently in the middle of my clinical rotation. The rotation is in an outpatient orthopedic clinic so far so good. I only know the grade of one of the two classes I took this summer, which is an A! I hope I will know the second by the end of the week. I am officially going to Wa August 3rd- 18th and I am going to try and see everyone but we know how hard that is. Howard will be in Wa the 14th - 18th. I wish we could spend more time but maybe in December I will be able to stay longer. Love you all and I will post pictures later.

May 2009

Hello all... I have not updated in a while so here I am to update you on my life since last time. I am officially a SECOND YEAR OT STUDENT!! I did it passed the hardest year so hopefully from here on out I won't have to worry about grades. My new goal for grades is to get B's and A's, no more C's for me! The hard sciences are out done, now it's more therapy and interventions.
I just finished a 10 day break and am now back in summer classes for four weeks then another week break then we get to do four weeks of clinicals then a month break! I am doing my clinicals at Central States Orthopedic, it is an outpatient facility. It will be interesting because I am not sure what OT's do in this area but that's one of the reasons why I chose it. My two summer classes are Movement Science I and Contexts for occupational performance. I am glad because in the contexts class we don't have any exams, we have three large group projects. The cool thing about this class and the projects is we get to go into homes and public places to assess and recommend changes and modifications the facility/homeowner could do to allow better access. Movement not so sure but I only have one exam and two projects. I am fairly confident in my abilities to make B's in both classes.
During my break Howard and I went up to St. Louis for a friends wedding. The picture above was at the top of the arch! We had a great time in St.Louis. We also toured the Budweiser plant, it was really neat and actually smelled really good. We also went to a Cardinals game, they lost but it was still fun! I then came back to Tulsa for a few days, spent time with Lindsey, Jackson and my roomies. I finished the break in Fort Smith and at the farm, which is always fun. Oh yeah, can't forget that I caught 6 fish!!
That is my news for now, I will try to be better at updating my blog. Much love,
Emily